Female GCC Started Shrieking - How do I help her?

[PCash]

Hi,

I was wondering if you might be able to shed some light on what's going on with my female green cheeked conure (Celeste). She recently started sitting with her back turned to us and shrieks. It almost sounds like she's calling for someone. She does look back over her shoulder at me when I call to her, but then she goes back to shrieking. Iago, my male, leaves her alone when she does that for the most part. Though I did see him try to come over to her this morning when she started shrieking.

I know it's not alarm/fear shrieking as she does that when she sees a helium balloon or purses. lol, poor thing.

I've been racking my brain to figure out what's going on with her. I get her out a couple times a day and make sure they're good experiences. She is rather timid, but I give her treats and stuff whenever she's out with us and try hard to make things a positive experience. I too try to stay tuned to what she wants. She's really smart and I usually pick up on non-verbal communication pretty well.

She has food, water, treats, and fun toys, and a nestbox. She and Iago my male are in the same large cage together and they do cuddle sometimes. She seems to get a lot of her confidence from him. Awhile ago, they seemed to do more mutual preening of each other and I think I've seen Iago regurgitate for Celeste.

Yes, I bought these to potentially breed them in the future. Please be gentle. I've been doing a lot of research, taking good care of my birds and proceeding carefully and cautiously with their health and well-being being first and foremost. Right now I'm just concerned that my female seems stressed in some way and I don't know what to do to help her.

We did have a couple changes recently. I brought two more conures (in their own cage, set across the room) into our home. I'm petsitting them for my sister until the end of May. Celeste was clipped when I got her from the breeder and I let her grow out her wings and learn to fly and she was pretty good at it, as in very fast. Recently with the warmer weather, we've had doors and windows open more often, so I felt it wiser to take her and Iago and get their wings clipped at the vets.

Another thing I noticed that has gotten significantly stronger lately is her attraction to my husband (and any young men really). She zips across the cage wall whenever she sees one near, and like bobs her head to attract them. She seems almost panicky/desperate when she does this. When my husband gets home she shrieks then too. We don't reward the shrieking, as in we don't go to her or give her any treats when she shrieks. I do go and give her treats when she's quiet.

My husband is a bit nervous around birds, so he hasn't tried to foster her attention on him. Plus we were hoping that she would attach to Iago, rather than a person and for awhile it seemed like that was happening. I'm not sure what this change is about.

Anyway, long story short, I was wondering if you have any recommendations about what might be going on and how I can help her.

So sorry for the long message. I'm just trying to sort out what's going on with Celeste and how I can help her.

 

[wrench13]

If it was only Celeste, I might have some suggestions, but I have no experience with 2 parrots in 1 cage. I find whats significant is that she turns her back to you, and her attraction to your husband. And that he is not really into building a bond with her.


She was recently clipped , when she had been flighted before. Did the shrieking begin after the clipping?

 

[Sunnyclover]

Did this start before or after the new birds you're taking care of came?

 

[PCash]

Did this start before or after the new birds you're taking care of came?

The shrieking started after the new birds came and after she got her wings clipped. I thought it might be related to one or both of those (poor girl), so I tried moving the other birds to another room, but it made no difference. I tried moving the other birds closer to her cage, but that didn't make any difference either. At least the other birds go home at the end of May.

I had Iago and Celeste out this morning and shared breakfast and then lunch with them. Celeste is always eager to get back to her cage, but especially at lunch she seemed more relaxed and enjoyed eating salad and mangos with us.

When she got upset midmorning, I tried draping a sheet over the one end of the cage, where she usually sits and shrieks. She quieted down. I left the sheet there. Only the one end of the cage is covered (it's a long cage, like six feet or so long by about two feet wide). Only about one foot is covered. Anyway, since the sheet has been in place (cutting off some of her view of the room), she's been quieter. Perhaps she was overstimulated? I dunno. She hasn't been in her cage that long since lunch, so I'll have to see if she starts back up again.

 

[LordTriggs]

it could potentially be a shadow upsetting her in some way which the sheet has helped with, all you can really do is try to figure out why she's screeching and then eliminate the way or curb her behavior to doing something else

 

[PCash]

Thanks!

We're gonna do another day with the sheet and see how that goes.

Always before I could figure out what the shrieking was, like when Iago hollers for us to come spend time with him. I was able to quickly change that behavior by only going and giving treats when he got quiet. Celeste, on the other hand, is/was a mystery.

Birds are so cool because they are so different from us, but gosh, sometimes they are confounding.

 

[MonicaMc]

If you want to breed them, then Celeste needs her wings. She needs to be flighted and be able to fly, thus reducing the chance of egg binding.


Have you had any luck figuring out why she's been doing the behavior?

 

[PCash]

I thought I would give a quick update.

So, I separated Iago and Celeste into their own cages and configured their cages differently so they each have their "safe spots", changed their diet (started feeding chop), and biggest change, I set them up on a routine. Since I'm home all of the time, I would randomly get them out during the day, randomly feed them treats, randomly clean their cages. I hadn't realized it, but I think the birds never knew when "something good" was going to happen and this was pretty disconcerting for them leading them to scream much of the time in hopes that something would change.


The screaming has lessened considerably. It's still happens sometimes, but it's usually easier for me to figure out why and either ignore or fix whatever problem is bothering them.

As far as Celeste only being interested in my husband, I started training Celeste after watching some of the Birdtricks videos on youtube. She's starting to be more open to having a relationship with me and it's pretty cool. Celeste is really intelligent and it's fun to see her brain work.

Anyway, I thought I would share in case it might encourage others with new screaming issues. (My birds are young, just over a year and had only been screaming for about a month or two, so it wasn't a long-entrenched habit.)

 

[MonicaMc]

What a great update!

If you want some better training information, then check out the links in this thread!

http://www.parrotforums.com/training/72250-free-training-resources.html

 

[PCash]

Thanks MonicaMC! I'll get to reading through the list and printing out anything I want to keep on hand.